PopMoney Gives PayPal Competition

Over the past few weeks, three large banks announced that they launched a new service called PopMoney, a technology that allows consumers to send funds to the mobile phones or email accounts of friends. The service is now available to PNC Bank, FNBO Direct, and First Hawaiian Bank customers, and is similar to a service that Paypal has offered for a while.

The way PopMoney works is that customers login to either their bank web site or mobile phone application, and select the PopMoney option. Next, they enter the email address or phone number of the person to which they wish to send the funds. Finally, they enter the amount of money to be sent.

The recipient of the money then receives an email or text message that provides a code for them to retrieve the funds. From there, they login to the PopMoney.com website via their computer or phone, and enter the code and their own bank’s information. The money is transferred to their bank account within a few days.

This process is essentially identical to PayPal’s “Send Money” feature, but the advantage of using PopMoney instead of PayPal is that it allows customers to send money directly from their own bank account without transferring money first through Paypal as a middle party.

However, unlike PayPal, which allows you to send money for free, some banks are charging the sender every time they send funds through PopMoney. For example, according to their website,
FNBO Direct is currently charging customers $2 each time they send funds through PopMoney, and $10 per transaction if they want the money to be delivered the next day. PNC Bank, on the other hand, currently does not charge a fee for sending money according to its press release.